The internet is full of hand-wavy advice. Not even bad advice, necessarily, but vague. The kind of advice that makes perfect sense in the moment, that makes you FEEL good, but then when you sit down to actually try it yourself… Pffft! Nothing comes out. How do you actually do it? You don’t know. They… Read more »
“I’m going to write a book.” “I’m going to build a SaaS app.” “I’m going to quit my job and travel the world.” Sound familiar? How often are these statements followed by action — real action? We all know That Guy. We all know people who spend all their time talking about what they want,… Read more »
Jony Ive has produced some of the best industrial design in the history of consumer products. He’s done it by cutting out all the extraneous crap, smoothing and streamlining. But what works beautifully for hardware does not work for software. That’s the kind of skeuomorphism that truly needs to die. Design is not just what […]
I’m about to break one of my very own rules: Don’t write for women. I’m a woman. I write about business. Why not write about business for women? Because I write for people, and women are people. Because business doesn’t care what you’re packing in your panties. At least, not the kind I write about,… Read more »
In my last essay, I totally pulled back the curtain on the planning + design stage of the (huge) brand new 30×500. The next step? Action, baby. And the key takeaway? Work has an interface and experience all its own… and YOU get to design YOURS. Do it right, and it’ll pay you back. Typically,… Read more »
Haters. If you do anything other than cower quietly in your cubicle, you’re gonna attract at least one hater of your very own. There’s just something about doing shit that attracts assholes. Like dopey bears to an unmonitored pic-a-nic basket. Here’s an example from my inbox today: This, my friends, is the hater in his… Read more »
You know I always tell you: you should do a tiny project first. You know I always advise that you must accept that good things take time, work incrementally, and keep stacking the bricks. Buuuut… sometimes you need to go big. You can build a lot of things nibble by nibble, but sometimes you need… Read more »
Let’s talk about That Thing. You know, That Thing you want to work on. That Thing you dream of finishing. That Thing that’s sitting, unfinished (or unstarted) on your desk or your hard drive. Or, uh, a vague dream only in your head. You keep saying you “need to find the time” to work on… Read more »
I skipped the steps and it didn’t work! It will never work! It’s a lie! I’m a failure! I suck! This sucks! Screw everything! … I can’t set a price on my book… I’ll make my potential customers do it! I’ll set up Pay What You Want! … I’m gonna re-start my newsletter! There will… Read more
On December 2nd, I sat down and started writing. 24 hours later, I launched the first (beta) version of my first biz book, Just Fucking Ship. After a couple more weeks of work, I shipped the final(ish) version. Then I put JFS on a shelf for a while in favor of more urgent/demanding things. Now,… Read more »
